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Brimful of Asher D
26.09.06
Love, Ashley: Actor and rapper Walters sees the British film industry giving more time to 'real', urban stories
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"I went to the Mobos and to be fair, they were rubbish - I won't be going again," says a disappointed Ashley Walters. "I watched British acts without dressing rooms run around the Royal Albert Hall, while American acts were sat in dressing rooms - who takes priority?"
Although the reason for this interview is Walters's forthcoming film, Life & Lyrics, it's impossible not to talk music with Asher D, who, as part of the much-maligned So Solid Crew, revolutionised homegrown urban music, winning two Mobos (2001) and a Brit (2002) along the way.
"The Mobos are forgetting why they started, which was giving British music a chance to shine because we don't get mentioned at the Grammys," explains 24-year-old Walters. "The Mobos were ours and different from the Brits because they weren't pop-based and represented urban and underground music.
"Don't get it twisted, I've got a lot of respect for what the Mobos have done, but if they lose sight of what it's about, people won't go and that's why there were loads of empty seats," he says.
Last Wednesday's awards ceremony might have deflated Walters but, ironically, it's a remarkably fruitful time for British urban films. Life & Lyrics - an endearing, against-the-odds love story about a South London DJ (Walters) who falls for a girl from the rival crew - follows Bullet Boy (also starring Walters), Kidulthood and Rollin'With The Nines.
"The British film industry is changing - a lot of films are being made and funded that previously would have stayed as scripts," he reckons. "Our generation's different and into different films: I don't want to go and watch Four Weddings And A Funeral and films like that, I'd fall asleep."
"Kids want to see films that entertain and relate to them, whether they have the best actors and biggest names in them or not," continues Walters, who has quietly been establishing himself as one of the country's most promising actors. "These films and what they're about are real as far as young people are concerned."
Walters, of course, also appeared in 50 Cent's biopic, Get Rich Or Die Tryin'. Did he glean any useful tips while in Hollywood? "When it comes to film, the thing that I noticed that the Americans do, such as George Clooney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, is they connect," explains Walters. "They get together and put their money together and make movies.
"When I was in LA, I was out one night playing poker with Mekhi Phifer and Don Cheadle in someone's mansion," he continues. "I was stunned and thinking 'What am I doing here?' - I didn't even have enough money to play with them - but all they talked about was making their own films."
Although Walters is positive about his progress as an actor and the growing diversity of British films, music remains a hard slog and so is his goal, as as a rapper and actor, to straddle music and film. However, he is undeterred and his second solo LP, In Memory Of The Street Fighter ('It's a f**k the Government ting and real life stories') is out next month on his own AD82 label.
"It's mad hard releasing an album on an independent label - doors are slammed in your face but you have got to keep trying," says Walters with steely determination. "You would think having a profile would help, but it doesn't, the music industry sees it as absurd to mix your music with acting.
"Doors may be opening in the acting world, but it doesn't mean anything in the music world," continues Walters. "Ice Cube, Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Mos Def: that person doesn't exist here and I'm trying to build that but it's difficult, people won't believe in it until they see it."
Life & Lyrics is on general release from Friday. In Memory Of The Street Fighter is out on October 9.
